Barnes and Noble Nook Color and Nook Tablet Adds Manga and Anime to Its Catalog

Barnes&Noble, developers of the NOOK line of e-readers and full-color Android powered tablets, announced its partnership with VIZ Media to bring over 100 anime and manga titles to the NOOK digital catalog.

“NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color are ideal devices for our customers to enjoy manga in stunning high resolution color that virtually makes the action leap off the page,” said Theresa Horner, Vice President of Digital Content for Barnes & Noble in a press release today. “We’re excited to work with VIZ Media to offer NOOK customers access to some of the most popular manga titles available in North America.”

One of the key demographics that have felt the sting of not having simple access to indie digital publishing are the writers and fans of graphic novels, so any strides that are made in bringing high-quality, big name titles to the digital devices is a welcome move.

“The Barnes & Noble team and VIZ Media have put together a fantastic manga reading experience by giving NOOK customers full control of their reading experience with the ability to pinch and zoom to dive into the tiniest details,” says Alvin Lu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of VIZ Media. “Barnes & Noble has been a major partner with VIZ Media for many years in growing the North American print manga market, and we’re very excited to expand our relationship to make our vast digital library of manga titles available to NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color customers. Over 100 volumes will be available at launch and we look forward to quickly expanding these selections to more than 500 in the coming months.”

Some of the titles that will be available at the launch are in the Beast Master line, Hyde & Closer volumes one through six, Fushigi Yugi, and many more.